Academics - WTF is going on?

[FloraFox]

www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/feb/02/goldsmiths-comedian-kate-smurthwaite-free-speech-show-feminist-campaigners

What fresh hell is this? Members of the feminist society at Goldsmith threatened to picket this feminist comedian because they disagree with her views in prostitution. So the SU cancelled the show.

See also the article that's linked about universities going mad banning things.

What's going on?

www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/feb/02/goldsmiths-comedian-kate-smurthwaite-free-speech-show-feminist-campaigners

I saw this earlier. Outrageous! Goldsmiths SU also wilfully misrepresented the facts. This is what Goldsmiths said. This is what actually transpired.

They've been pretty shitty all round.

And I'd bet they'd have someone like Jimmy Carr.

It's not academics - it's students out of their depths. They don't want to upset anyone and think upsetting a professional is a lower order offence than upsetting a student.

And then we come on to the Goldsmiths femsoc... Being generous, perhaps they have found themselves frequently under attack (not atypical for feminists to find themselves under attack) and some of them are now a little gun-shy. Hence worrying that a feminist lefty comedian might breach their safe space policy.

I think it's pretty outrageous to accuse a feminist comedian of breaching safe space.

Are students really so thin skinned they can't be in the same room as someone they disagree with? What are they going to be like in the workforce?

scallops I saw Kate Smurtheaite's blog earlier. It seems they care very little about being truthful. It's a very strange ethos.

I'm a student at the university and am tangentially involved with student politics. It turns out that I'm not the right kind of feminist... I support the Nordic model and (thankfully) avoided a vote at the SU where there was a huge bunfight about it.

IMO feminism at GS is very 'sex-positive' / 'choice' feminism and intolerant of any ideas whatever related to radical feminism. I keep quiet so I'm not accused of being a TERF / SWERF.

Thanks for your perspective Sunshine. The intolerance is quite shocking. Do they do any actual positive campaigning or is it just bashing RFs?

Intolerance in feminist circles found to be shocking - you're have a laugh.

There has been some good work around advertising imagery on campus and helping women in the SU. But there's a definite 'atmosphere' around certain subjects. I knew that trans issues were very important, but didn't realise until today how sex work was considered.

I think it's pretty outrageous to accuse a feminist comedian of breaching safe space.

Not what happened. If an individual becomes aware of a potential event hazard (protest) people should be informed about it. Things like this then go to security. The organisers are bound by what security demands be done for the event to legally go ahead. Extra security to maintain safe space guidelines is generally not a free service. So, who will pay for it then becomes an issue.

The performer/speaker does not breech safe space, not unless they intend to protest their own performance/speech.

I think you are misunderstanding what safe space means in this context Dadwashere. It meant that her routine was allegedly going to breach a 'safe space' (but no evidence for this) for some marginalised groups. They cited sex workers and Muslim women. They felt there were potential issues with security (again, no evidence) but that wasn't the safe space they were talking about.

I.e. it what she was going to say which would breach the safe space.

Yes, DWH, the safe space thing isn't about physical space, it's about mental space.

If you'd read the links Flora put above, you'd know that.

Think Goldsmith was clever here not so much the 8 tickets but given that those that were most likely to attend would actually be outside protesting. The comedy society may or may not buy tickets OTD but you would think the feminist society wouldn't be buying tickets so pulling the show was probably a good idea.

And if you block people for expressing a different opinion on twitter you get a world of Unicorns with rainbow farts. That's her choice but to complain after about only getting half the story well no one to blame but herself.

What are you on about sausage? It was free show where they weren't expecting to sell tickets. GU may have claimed this was about ticket sales but since their exchange of messages with Kate S proved otherwise, it was a very stupid thing to do.

Now they come off as not only hostile to feminist speech but also as liars.

Typical woman-blaming nonsense.

sarah ditum:

sarahditum.com/2015/02/03/no-platforming-smurthwaite-unspeakable-females/

how do they think they can get away with saying that due to pickets+low ticket sales they decided to pull the plug? either it was a free event for members of the societies, with sales for non-members, or it wasn't

If you'd read the links Flora put above, you'd know that.

I did read the links:

I thought it was only fair to let the organisers know that I thought there was a risk of a protest or of people coming along to the show with the specific aim of disrupting it or arguing with me.

Then I was asked if I had picket lines outside gigs before. I said no. Then I was told it was due to a likelihood of a breach of Goldsmiths’ ‘safe space policy’.

Despite many complaints from students about the content of Kate’s act in the past we were planning to go ahead with the gig until Kate told me 24 hours before that there was likely to be a picket with lots of students and non students outside the venue.

How did a possible physical protest, warned of by the comedian herself, move into some form of 'mental only' safety space issue you are talking about in this thread?

It was a free event, for FemSoc and Comedy Society members. Some FemSoc members decided they wanted to no platform KS, but lost the vote, so they decided to tell people they would picket.

The 8 tickets thing is a complete red herring, tickets were being sold to people from outside the 2 societies and the general public, everyone else would just turn up on the day.

The irony is that KS was doing a set on free speech, and she has been no platformed. More and more women are being no platformed for having views that don't fit in with others men even if they aren't there to talk about their "problematic" views. Germaine Greer only just escaped being no platformed in Cambridge last week, probably because she's such a big hitter, but Julie Bindel is regularly not allowed to speak, even if it's about a subject unrelated to trans* issues.

Ah DWH, you only read one of the links then.... SHOCK!